Congradulations to Elaine Hsiao for being selected as one of the New York Stem Cell Foundation 2018 Robertson Investigators, receiving a five-year, $1.5 million award from the New York Stem Cell Foundation to support her research into how microbes affect the brain and behavior.

UCLA Professor Hsiao has been selected as a 2017 Packard Fellow in Science and Engineering

Congratulations to Professor Elaine Hsiao, The David and Lucile Packard Foundation is excited to announce the 2017 Packard Fellowships in Science and Engineering. Congratulations to Elaine Hsiao and Hosea M. Nelson from the University of California, Los Angeles, for each being awarded one of these 18 Packard Fellowships! Each Fellow will receive a grant of $875,000 over five years to pursue their research.
For more information, go to The David & Lucile Packard Foundation

10/09/2017

Adjunct Associate Professor Tony Friscia featured in the UCLA newsroom

IBP Faculty and BRI Diversity Directors, Ketema Paul and Gina Poe secure a three-year UC-HBCU Diversity grant for the BRI. This grant will fund underrepresented college students to prepare themselves for a career involving research via summer research projects that are supported by the grant in the laboratories of BRI faculty. This grant will add to the current support of this summer program by BRI sources so that more students can be given opportunity and that a programatic relationship with Spelman College, Delaware State University and Morgan State University can be developed.

The program will begin in the summer of 2018.

06/05/2017

Professor Barney Schlinger elected President-Elect for the Society of Behavioral Neuroendocrinology

SBN'S INCOMING PRESIDENT-ELECT: BARNEY A. SCHLINGERBarney A. Schlinger, Ph.D. obtained a B.S. at Tufts U. in Biology (1977) and a M.S. (1983) and Ph.D (1988) at Boston.U. His dissertation research with Gloria Callard investigated brain steroid-metabolism and behavior in birds. His post-doctoral work in Psychology at UCLA with Art Arnold explored the neurobiology and endocrinology of birdsong. He was appointed as Assist Professor (1993) in what is now the Department of Integrative Biology and Physiology (IBP) at UCLA and became Full Professor in 2002. In 2009 he was selected to Chair the IBP Department, a position he currently still holds. He is broadly interested in the powerful ways in which steroid hormones influence the structure and function of the brain to control complex vertebrate behavior. He challenges dogma that the steroids that control brain and behavior are derived solely from the periphery. In songbirds, his lab finds that steroids are synthesized de novo in brain with actions independent of peripheral hormones. Much of his work has focused on the estrogen synthetic enzyme aromatase. By combining biochemical, anatomical, electrophysiological, molecular and behavioral approaches, his lab has convincingly demonstrated that estrogens are brain constitutive neuromodulators influencing avian auditory processing. His lab also strives to address problems that link laboratory study with general questions in ecology, evolutionary biology and ethology. He has studied a diversity of wild species, including jays and wild sparrows. He has developed a model system for understanding neuromuscular and hormonal control of a complex motor behavior, the courtship of wild male golden-collared manakins of Panamanian rainforests. This line of work has developed into a significant story that links behavioral neuroendocrinology with diverse areas of anatomy, physiology and evolutionary theory. Over the years, he has received a number of honors including being a recipient of the Frank Beach Award from SBN (1993); an Alexander von Humboldt Research Award and he is a Research Associate of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. He has considerable administrative experience at UCLA. As a member of SBN from near the beginning he has had many roles including Secretary, 2007-2009; Chair, Nominating Committee, 2015; Chair, Awards Committee, 2009-2011; Chair, Organizing Committee for the 2007 Annual Meeting. He was elected to the Advisory Board, 2003-2007; was a member of the Nominating Committee, 2000; Training Grant Committee, 2001; Frank Beach Award Committee, 2002-2004; Program Committee, 2003-2005; he organized workshops for the annual meetings in 2004 & 2005, an outgrowth of which was the current Public Education Committee. He is eager to help SBN and its members prosper and meet the challenges we face in our pursuit of scientific discovery and excellence.

UCLA Professor Emerita Judith L. Smith has been selected to receive the 2016 – 2017 Carole E. Goldberg Emeriti Service Award. The award will be presented at the UCLA Emeriti Association annual dinner.Judith L. Smith, retired as Senior Dean and Convener of the College Cabinet of Deans (Letters and Science) in 2012. In 2014, she was asked and recalled to become Executive Director of the (still-“virtual”) UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music and the School’s Interim Dean. This was more than a full-time job, but she undertook it, did a superlative job in what might have otherwise seemed an impossible situation, tasked with fusing three departments into a cohesive school. Subsequent to her recall, Judi has now formally assumed the position of the founding Dean of this School lending her considerable dynamism, charisma and collegiality to the school and enhancing its visibility and presence on campus.
Please join me in wishing Dean Smith a well-deserved congratulations for outstanding service to UCLA since retirement and for serving as a powerful example of intellectual and professional achievement.

The Newton Abraham Visiting Professorship in association with Lincoln CollegeThe Newton Abraham Visiting Professorship is an exciting opportunity for a highly distinguished
researcher working in the medical, biological or chemical sciences or a related interdisciplinary
area to spend up to 12 months in Oxford. In addition to following a programme of collaborative
research, the Professor’s role involves stimulating interest in and research within her or his field,
and engagement with the wider research community at Oxford and beyond, including delivery of
the prestigious Newton Abraham Lecture. The Professor receives a salary of £65,967 per
annum (at current rates) plus personal travel expenses, and will be provided with family
accommodation, free of rent and local taxes. The Visiting Professor will be a Professorial Fellow
of Lincoln College, Oxford.

A Brief History of the Professorship

The noted biochemist Sir Edward Penley Abraham worked in
the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology at Oxford, where, with Ernest Chain and Howard Florey, he investigated the therapeutic potential of penicillin and played an important role in purifying it and decoding its chemical structure. E.P. Abraham subsequently worked with Guy Newton in the
discovery of the antibiotic cephalosporin. The patent income from the antibiotic enabled the establishment of several charitable trusts for the support of biomedical research,including the E.P. Abraham Research Fund. The Newton Abraham Visiting Professorship was established in 1980, with a donation from the E.P. Abraham Research Fund.

Popular Mechanics magazine honors Professors Xia Yang and Fernando Gomez-Pinilla for their NIH-funded EBioMedicine research with a 2016 Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Award, which recognizes “the research, innovators, and scientists who’ve made the world a little better this year". For full article, please visit Here.

Staff Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award Recipient:
Tama Hasson, the Academic Director of the Program for Excellence in Education and Research in the Sciences (PEERS), is this year’s Staff DEI Award recipient. She has personally worked with and mentored more than 1000 students through a variety of programs at UCLA, all of which emphasize the success of students from underserved backgrounds. Dr. Hasson also played a leading role in the development of the curriculum that prepares these students to succeed in majors where they often are not successful. Since arriving at UCLA she has obtained at least 10 grants to support underserved and minority students to achieve educational and research excellence.

Professors Xia Yang and Fernando Gomez-Pinilla featured in the UCLA newsroom

Staff Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award Recipient:
Tama Hasson, the Academic Director of the Program for Excellence in Education and Research in the Sciences (PEERS), is this year’s Staff DEI Award recipient. She has personally worked with and mentored more than 1000 students through a variety of programs at UCLA, all of which emphasize the success of students from underserved backgrounds. Dr. Hasson also played a leading role in the development of the curriculum that prepares these students to succeed in majors where they often are not successful. Since arriving at UCLA she has obtained at least 10 grants to support underserved and minority students to achieve educational and research excellence.

Congratulations to Professor Xia Yang in Receiving a Life Sciences Excellence Award

Please join us in congratulating Professor Xia Yang in receiving a Life Sciences Excellence Award for Research Publication (Assistant Professor).

03/31/2015

Professor David Glanzman's eLife Research is Featured in Scientific American - Memories May Not Live in Neurons' Synapses

The finding could mean recollections are more enduring than expected and disrupt plans for PTSD treatments

As intangible as they may seem, memories have a firm biological basis. According to textbook neuroscience, they form when neighboring brain cells send chemical communications across the synapses, or junctions, that connect them. Each time a memory is recalled, the connection is reactivated and strengthened. The idea that synapses store memories has dominated neuroscience for more than a century, but a new study by scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles, may fundamentally upend it: instead memories may reside inside brain cells. If supported, the work could have major implications for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a condition marked by painfully vivid and intrusive memories.

The UCLA Academic Senate Committee on Learning has selected the 2014-2015 Senate faculty recipients of the Distinguished Teaching Award. One of the highest honors given by the Academic Senate, the award recognizes academically and professionally accomplished individuals who bring respect and admiration to the scholarship of teaching. The committee selects recipients from nominations received from colleagues and leaders across the campus. Meet the Honorees

UCLA life scientists have created an accurate new method to identify genetic markers for many diseases — a significant step toward a new era of personalized medicine, tailored to each person’s DNA and RNA. Read More

01/20/2015

UCLA'S DR. EDGERTON'S RESEARCH FEATURED IN SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN - PARALYZED RATS WALK AGAIN WITH FLEXIBLE SPINAL IMPLANT

A rubbery ribbon of silicone, laced with cracked bits of gold that transmit nerve signals, has been spliced into the broken spinal cords of paralyzed rats, restoring their ability to move. The implant may be the first step towards helping paralyzed people in the same way. Read More

A number of IBP professors win Life Sciences Faculty Awards for 2014:Teaching Innovation Award, Amy RowatOutstanding Achievements in the promotion of Diversity and Excellence, Dwayne SimmonsOutstanding Research Publication, David WalkerOutstanding Research Publication, Mark Frye

PROFESSOR STEPHANIE WHITE RECOGNIZED AS A FINALIST FOR THE POST DOC MENTORSHIP AWARD

At the Society of Postdoctoral Scholars award ceremony, Professor Stephanie White was recognized as being a finalist for the Postdoc Mentorship award. She was selected as one of the top four faculty out of 16 total nominated across the entire university.

Professor V. Reggie Edgerton, PhD, UCLA distinguished professor in the Department of Integrated Biology and Physiology, will receive the J. Allyn Taylor International Prize in Medicine at the Western's Leaders in Innovation Dinner on November 19th, 2012. Edgerton‚Äôs research pioneered the rehabilitation strategy of treadmill training after a spinal cord injury, and the added benefits of epidural electrical stimulation.

Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology (SBN) is proud to announce that the recipient of the 2012 Frank A. Beach Award is Dr. Luke Remage-Healey, assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The award is made to a new investigator, normally within eight years post-PhD (or MD) who shows exceptional promise for making significant contributions to the field of Behavioral Neuroendocrinology. Dr. Remage-Healey will be honored at the Behavioral Neuroendocrinology Social at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in New Orleans, and he will present his lecture at SBN's annual meeting in Atlanta in June 2013.
Dr. Remage-Healey worked in the laboratory of Michael Romero at Tufts as an undergraduate, received his PhD working in the lab of Andy Bass at Cornell, and then did a postdoc with Barney Schlinger at UCLA. Dr. Remage-Healey's website describes his work as follows:

"Our lab is focused on the study of behavioral physiology, specifically the non-traditional regulation of brain function and behavior by steroid hormones. Steroids are produced within discrete neural circuits ('neurosteroids') and can therefore influence behavior via local and acute actions within those circuits. We study these phenomena in songbirds using a variety of technical approaches including in vivo microdialysis, electrophysiology, immunocytochemistry, and neuropharmacology. Songbirds offer a unique model system in which brain steroid production is widespread and especially pronounced, and in which the development and expression of a suite of social behaviors is accessible in the laboratory and natural environments."

Starting with her very first lecture at UCLA, Patty Phelps has been searching for new approaches to deepen student learning. Sixteen years ago when very few faculty members were using computers in their teaching, she began working with an undergraduate computer artist and her colleagues at the UCLA Crump Institute for Molecular Imaging to develop multimedia materials to illustrate in 3-D the complex changes that occur within the human embryo.

PROFESSOR ART ARNOLD FEATURED IN ARTICLE IN HORMONES AND BEHAVIOR: THE OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY FOR BEHAVIORAL NEUROENDOCRINOLOGY

Professor Art Arnold is featured in an article, "State-of-the art (Arnold) behavioral neuroendocrinology", in "Hormones and Behavior: The Official Journal of the Society for Behavioral Neuroendocrinology" which was co-authored by Professor and Chair, Barney Schlinger.